From Parking Lot to Participation

But why don’t they come to Mass?

Catechists from more than 25 parishes came together over the last few weeks to consider the question of the participation of families in parish life. While this is high during the periods of Sacramental Preparation and our Catholic schools are popular for a variety of reasons families often choose to be Catholic in ways other than Sunday worship. We really desire to have them join us at the table and so we chatted about how we might encourage engagement.

The underpinning theme was welcome. How do we welcome those who arrive, maybe a little tentative, maybe returning after years absent? And how do we encourage even this tentative engagement? After much discussion, there was no simple solution. Actually, there wasn’t even a complex solution. We did, however, break open some of the reasons, some of the barriers and share a passion to continue asking the questions and taking steps to ensure “All are welcome, all are welcome in this place”.